Here in Albuquerque

Posting from a box at Isotopes Stadium, where Manny Ramirez will start his rehab assignment this evening here in Albuquerque. It’s a really nice facility…the last time I was here was in 1998 and Paul Konerko and Dennys Reyes were the top prospects playing for the Dukes. They’ve got a new stadium and are expecting a sellout crowd tonight due to Manny’s arrival. Should be an interesting few days.

Meanwhile (and more importantly), the team is in Chicago for a three-game set against the White Sox. Clayton Kershaw will host a web chat at 1 p.m. PT/3 p.m. CT today on dodgers.com from the clubhouse at US Cellular Field, so be sure to login and catch up with him.

That’s about it for now…will try to post the lineup for the game in Chicago later in the day but it could be busy around here. MLB Network will be here providing live look-ins of all of Manny’s at-bats and there’s quite a bit of media that has made the trip to Albuquerque.

Great – Mark Kriegel is another Pierre-lover: “Actually, it’s a perfectly reasonable expectation, just as long as Joe Torre continues …. finding a place in the lineup for his .338 hitter, Juan Pierre. ”
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Doesn’t he realize that Pierre has only hit .273/.309/.325 while Ethier is .300/.347/.600 and Kemp is .355/.406/.484 in June? Shouldn’t his journalistic integrity dictate that he should be saying that Ethier and Kemp have been gearing up so that Pierre’s bat will no longer be needed in the lineup?

Sara,
Good story. Thanks for sharing.
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Shad,
I was told by some ladies from the Dodger Booster Club that the Dodgers play at Yankee Stadium next year. We are hoping the Booster club plans a trip there next year. They usually organize trips.
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So looks like Josh will make it back on time for the ITD tour/game.
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Emmahttp://crzblue.mlblogs.com/

yeah crash, i pretty much ignored that pierre line of the article.. well, actually, i scoffed at it first, and then ignored it.. me saying it was a good article was just referring to the loney quotes and the overall idea that this is a good team with or without manny..

i don’t know how some people analyze pierre’s numbers to support him.. it’s just like on sunday night baseball when joe morgan was talking about how he doesn’t understand how the dodgers are going to put pierre back on the bench when manny returns.. i wanted to tell him that’s where 4th outfielders belong.. you can’t just look at pierre’s numbers alone, you have to look at them in comparison to andre’s and matty’s.. not a difficult decision at all, in my opinion..

I don’t want some people to think we are Dodger bashers but I totally agree with all of you on the Juan issue. If he were that great, some team out there would have made us an offer……huge contract or not (which could have been worked out) but to my knowledge no team has approached us.

I see where the Manny circus has begun. Excuse me for not being too excited about all the attention he is receiving. After all, it is not like he is coming back from an injury or military service; he is coming back from a self induced 50 game vacation. If nothing else, he will regain his normal productivity so we don’t have to continue rehashing the merits of Juan Pierre over and over again.

Well if the starters don’t put in the effect to goes 7 or 8 than you can’t really blame Torre and they were just talking about it and we have 3 in the top 15 in reliever inning pitch with Troncoso ranking #1 and Belisario ranking #3.

Ready packed Oldbrook? I had to pack last night as I am house-sitting till Sunday morning so that is where I am heading. Now I don’t know why I agreed to look after these kitties. Never stayed at my friend’s house before. Oh well, got to go now before they leave to the airport so I can get keys and they can show me how their alarm works and whatever else. Oh yeah Tv so that I can watch the games.
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Did you see The Dodgers will play the Yankees next year?

By the way, my son in law works near LAX and he was having a lunch meeting at one of hotels nearby. As he was walking through the lobbey he noticed someone sitting by himself on a couch with what looked like a Dodger equipment bag. My son in law looked closer and thought he recognized the man and sure enough it was Juan Pierre, who was probably there waiting for the flight to Texas. My son in law went up to Pierre and asked him if he was Juan Pierre. JP said yes and they **** chatted for a moment. My son in law says Pierre seemed surprised someone noticed him but he was quite cordial and signed an autograph for my son in law.

I would had save Broxton and let McDonald pitch don’t tell me he couldn’t get the last out and heck even the bad Wade could get one out we really didn’t need Broxton tonight. Heck I’m surprise Torre didn’t have Leach vs Thome consider we had Beimel facing Bonds the past couple of years.

A few in here are POed that Broxton had to pitch…and I agree. But it was the top of the inning that lead to Broxton. Everything in baseball seems connected. With a runner on third and no outs, Pierre and Furcal can’t even get the run home, let alone O-Dog. Perhaps if the Dodgers have an extra run to play with, Joe warms up another pitcher. As it was, Broxton hardly had to sweat…but one never knows. There are only so many pitches in an arm over the course of a season. Not be greedy, though. The Dodgers just keep rolling along. Hey, maybe when Manny leaves New Mexico he can join the ITD tour on Saturday. Manny? You game?

Missed the game, but catching up on the posts made me curious about Kuroda’s exit. I just checked GameDay to see how the ninth progressed. I’ll tell you exactly why Torre put in Broxton. At that point, it became a save situation. Pure and simple. Yeah, I see that Kuroda hit 103 pitches. Doesn’t matter.

“One of these days that defensive indifference will cost us a ballgame, and when it does, I’d personally like to take that game ball and shove it down f’ing Torre’s throat.

And one more reaction – to enchanted’s link up top that warns us that Pierre will steal atbats from Ethier soon. 1) We already knew that, didn’t we? and 2) Why doesn’t that defensive OF scare the crap out of Torre? I think I know. I think Torre will play a 4-man OF and rest Furcal on those days. Hudson will rove between short and second, depending on whether the hitter is a lefty or righty.
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Any other reason would be………..stupid.

Jarrod Washed-up??? What do we need with another back of the rotation guy who’s last good year was 2002? (come to think of it, he does sound like the Ned type.) What’s Washburn got that Milton and Stults don’t?

If Ned HAS to have him, I suppose Hu could go. Repko…. How about Pierre straight-up?

I just don’t see Jarrod Washburn. Under .500, averaging about 6 innings per start. I mean, what’s the point? Don’t the Dodgers have enough journeymen lefties with stats like that? Either get a pitcher who will REALLY make a difference–whether in the pen or as a starter–or sit tight and quit trading kids for crap. As far as Pierre when Manny comes back, I wouldn’t blow a gasket just yet. Ethier thrives with Manny in the line-up. What else is Joe going to say right now?

I agree with you shad. But try counting the times that we reach the save situation (in the ninth only) when Torre DOESN’T bring in the closer. The only time he doesn’t is if the starter is still in the game and he has a shutout going.

Say we have a 4-run lead going into the ninth. Torre won’t bring in Brox until the other team scores a run. If we have a 5-run lead, he’ll wait until 2 score. Etcetera. Once that potential tying run hits the on-deck circle, here comes the closer.

I have to agree Kahli – either get someone that makes a difference or stand pat. We get to the playoffs we’ve got Billz, Kuroda and Wolf/Kershaw. Not fantabulous, but better than most unless you can pick-up a Haren or Lee.

If they want to save the BP, why not try out McDonald as the secondary closer while we’ve got a big divisional lead? Let he and Brox alternate and save Brox through July and part of August so you’ve got him strong down the stretch.

Wouldn’t hurt though if they went out and picked up a good BP guy to fill that roll either.

You guys see they batted Manny leadoff, presumably to get 4-5 ABs, then they pulled him after his 2nd AB for a PH. What was the point of that? If he’s “rehabbing”, why not bat him third like he’ll be doing when he gets back?

I am guessing by comments, Joe made some statement about making sure JP gets playing time once Manny is back. Such Crap!! …………..just please don’t use the excuse that Andre needs a rest because that is NOT what this is all about.

“I think that Don has faced some problems that I never had to. When I say that, people immediately jump on the drugs and steroids question, but that’s not it at all.”

He goes on to say that Fehr’s biggest problem was that he “…..had not a single member who played one day of major league baseball before the union. That’s a tremendous handicap, because people have a tendency to think the conditions we find were always like that.” Oh yeah, that’s WAAAAAAY more important. More:

Miller said that he doesn’t like the way Fehr handled the steroid issue. But not that he ignored the problem. “I would not have allowed for so-called universal testing”. Hmmm.

What does he think of George Mitchell and his Mitchell report? “He should be ashamed of himself.”

But then, why should he care about steroids? After all, “Congress loves to retreat into [by saying] ‘Hey, this is dangerous stuff that causes death,’ go find me a single autopsy that authenticates that. Maybe they do cause real harm and death, but no one has demonstrated it yet.”

He may not have had a steroid issue, but “Amphetamines were the bane of some people’s existence, and obviously cocaine. I was aware that there were people using those, absolutely. The amphetamines used to be supplied by the trainers, who were employed by the owners, in open bowls for whoever wanted to take a scoop of them. Not only were there no regulations, it was being supplied by the owners’ employees. The first time I saw that in spring training I couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought they were jelly beans.” Did he do anything about it? I can’t find anything.

“Asked what should be done about baseball’s performance-enhancing drug problem, Miller said, “I want to make it clear I don’t know what the truth is and I don’t pretend to know.”

“As for what he would do if he were still in charge, Miller said, “I don’t know. You can’t solve all these problems.”

Speaking of the Beav–and with the passing of Ed McMahan–I remember Art Fern and Tea-Time Movie, when Johnny would list a number of rhyming actors and then the upcoming movie…you know like, Sara Lee, Bruce Lee, Spike Lee and Honk the Wonder Goose in “Beaver Takes a Shower for an Hour,” which is a title I DEFINITELY remember! Or “Beaver Goes to Bed with a Flashlight.”

I saw a Tonight Show, too, in the late 70s. Ed would warm up the audience for about 15 minutes with his own stand-up until show time. I also sat though an entire day of the Gong Show waiting for my buddy to get on…but he never did??!?!?!?!

Eric – that is just crazy. We were having a discussion tonight about this issue with the coaches we had over and Manny of course became a topic. Very interesting things he had to say about players in general, but mostly pitchers when it comes to PED.

A friend and I saw a few Tonight Shows in the early ’70s. Carson was still based in NY then and would come out for a couple of weeks occasionally. One show had Bob Hope on the sofa and Redd Foxx in the chair when the cameras went out. Carson was told it was going to be a while, so he had the lights turned on, scanned the audience and asked if there were any children present. No one spoke up. He and Foxx and Hope spent the next 45 minutes telling us dirty jokes! Talk about a lucky break!

I know I’m getting older when the icons of my youth are leaving–John Lennon, George Harrison, Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon, Don Drysdale, George Carlin, Jerry Garcia, even my mom and dad. I’m sure we all have our own sorry list…

I wish I could find a sketch he did as a magician. He brought the little old man on stage and covered him with a cloth. He grabbed the wrong knife from his lovely assistant and stabbed the old man in the head, which was obviously a melon or something. He slumps to the floor and is dragged off the stage as his assistant shows him the fake knife he was supposed to use. Funniest thing I’ve ever seen.

I just notice Castro hasn’t played since July 6 is he ok? He should at least have some AB’s when we played Oakland and SD at home and why in heck hasn’t Ellis been in a game yet? Did we really need to bring him up to have a 3rd catchers on this team? I thought the idea was for Martin to take a rest.

Good Morning ITDland ~ great stuff last night……brought back fond memories of the Tonight Show. Haven’t watched any late night talk shows since Johnny left the air. Benny Hill was also fantastic.
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Let’s get game two from the White Sox today! GO DODGERS!!!! DODGER BLUE THRU & THRU!!!!!
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Really getting excited about the tour Saturday. Can’t wait to meet you all! Just hope Josh is ready for us! lol

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